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First ‘normal’ year-end holiday since pandemic: A windfall for tourism
Both the government and business players are preparing to embrace two major holidays, Christmas and New Year, which it is hoped will be catalysts in spurring domestic spending on leisure activities that will boost the tourism recovery.
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Batik seller works in a traditional market in Yogyakarta on Sept. 27, 2011. (World Bank/Nugroho Nurdikiawan Sunjoyo)
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oth the government and business players are preparing to embrace two major holidays, Christmas and New Year, which it is hoped will be catalysts in spurring domestic spending on leisure activities that will boost the tourism recovery.
In a hearing session with the House of Representatives Commission V, which oversees infrastructure and transportation affairs, the Transportation Ministry announced that there would be no mobility restrictions during this end-of-year holiday season.
Since 2020, authorities had been heavily restricting transportation flows during these two festivities, along with other major holidays, in accordance with the need to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
However, since the beginning of this year, particularly after fears over the spread Omicron variant passed, the government has been allowing consumers to travel and purchase offline goods without the tight restrictions, including during the Ramadan and Idul Fitri festivities.
“This is a blessing for us, where the Christians can celebrate Christmas and all of us can celebrate New Year’s Eve,” Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi told commission members on Tuesday.
Budi said that this year’s celebrations, compounded with school holidays, would boost the number of travelers compared with the previous holiday season.
As a result, preliminary research from the Transportation Ministry showed that 16.35 percent of the nationwide population, some 44.17 million people, would travel during the upcoming holiday season, up from the 13 percent in 2021 but still far below the 55 percent in 2019.
